Behind the Wheel

Behind the Wheel

Anthony Crawford started driving at 3 years old when he got “behind the wheel” of his auntie’s Mini Cooper and with a carload of similar aged cousins, decided to release the hand brake to see how she went. What he didn’t know, was that at the end of the road which they were fast heading for, there was a 20 metre cliff face and he couldn’t find first gear! It ended up OK, as some guy who was washing his car in the driveway, dropped his sponge and bolted for the car which he managed to stop without incident.

Pre-teen driving continued on a farm in the north west of NSW where annual holidays were spent driving anything from Willy’s jeeps to Ford Utes and old Peugeots with a few Honda Ag bikes thrown in for good measure.

You could say that cars & driving was in Anthony’s blood. His father, John Crawford, raced his Woolsley 6/80 Special at Bathurst and other circuits in the late 50’s, together with motorcycle racing on an Ariel Red Hunter.

Anthony made his first car show in 1989 which was a pilot episode with Peter Brock as the host and Brady Halls from Nine, as one of the presenters. It was a good effort and caught the attention of Nine Network Supremo, Sam Chisolm who invited him up to his Sydney home to pitch the show. Let’s just say it nearly got up!

His next effort “Behind the Wheel” was with car mad and Australian icon, James Morrison as the host, along with Dick Johnson, Kevin (KB) Bartlett and Monica Trapica as presenters. The series was successfully sold to the TEN Network in 1995 and pulled over 2 million viewers and ran for 18 episodes. This was the first time a prime motoring program was broadcast on free to air TV in Australia, in over 20 years.

Anthony then spent the next few years trying to convince ABC TV to produce a car show much like Top Gear in the UK however, as the big blue Volvo (Government Bus) remains the preferred choice of transport for the majority of ABC employees, the sales pitch fell mostly on deaf ears.

He then turned his attention to a new motoring concept which became Drive TV, which was sponsored by Fairfax and their Drive brand. This series also ran on the TEN Network and was highlighted by the entertaining “Hot Lap” segment. The presenters on the show were motoring journalist supremo Michael Stahl, Allison Cratchley and Drive’s own Toby Hagon.

Anthony is currently working on a new and very different motoring format which he hopes will deliver high doses of entertainment and as such, has the working title of “Full Throttle”. Stay tuned.

Anthony will try and provide a new car review each week which will be an honest look at the car from “Behind the Wheel” and from the perspective of the average driver concerned with issues such as fuel consumption, how the car rides, how it corners, comfort, features and even stuff like storage space, seat support and driving position etc.

Should you have any requests or comments – by all means send them through.